Just friends
by Gravitydefied
Summary: AU:Mercedes and Mike are best friends. Best friends who just so happen to be co-parenting their rather rambunctious three-year old daughter, Vivian. Swimming in a sea of ambiguity has its perks and it's challenges. How will they deal?AN: Originally written as Puckcedes.
1. Chapter 1

**AU: Mercedes and Mike are best friends. Best friends who just so happen to be co-parenting their rather rambunctious three-year old daughter, Vivian. It's time for them to start dating again but will they ever approve of the other's choices.**

April 29, 2000

Little Mike Chang sat at the end of the bright blue half circle table, his brown eyes trained steadily on the movement of the rather large kindergarten pencil he was using to trace the alphabet. He focused on the sound the pencil made as it worked its way across his paper. He could control this, so he made sure that each letter was traced to perfection and diligently erased an entire character if it showed the slightest flaw. The small boy blinked his eyes rapidly, trying his level best to not allow the tears to fall from them. He was a "big boy" and "big boys did not cry." Mike's breathing hitched as his father's voice resonated in his mind. He wondered if he still had to listen to his father since he was no longer there. It had been a week since he'd last seen him.

Assuming he was asleep, his parents had gotten into their worst argument yet. Mike had tried, to no avail, to drown out the sound of his parents screaming over one another. Occasionally he would hear silence but already knew too well that it was only temporary, as the sounds of ceramic smashing violently against the hardwood floor violated the relief. The voices continued, but Noah could not make out what they were saying. In all honesty he didn't want to try to understand. Eyes already drooping from lack of sleep, Mike grabbed his teddy and snuggled underneath his covers before sticking his thumb in his mouth and drifting off to sleep, not caring that he would undoubtedly get in trouble for being found sucking his thumb. The sound of Michael Chang's heavy footsteps on the stairs were only a prelude to the slamming drawers and closet doors culminating in the whispered question, "But what about Mike?" Mike had been sound asleep.

There were no goodbye hugs or kisses; just the light from the hallway pouring into the dark room.

That morning Mike's mother Julia confirmed that his father was gone for good.

So fixated on not letting his classmates and teacher see him cry, Mike was numb to the passage of time or to the fact that a very large set of brown doe eyes had been trained on him throughout the day.

For the first time in his five years of existence Mike was excited about nap time. He placed his mat in the corner by the bookshelf, wrapped himself in his blanket and stuck his thumb in his mouth; all the while knowing that his father would have disapproved. He felt the light gust of wind caused by a mat being placed next to his but he chose not to turn to acknowledge it. Once the lights were out, he closed his eyes and allowed the salty tears to run down his cheeks, figuring that in the dark no one would see or hear him. Before his small body succumbed to sleep, he felt a small, warm hand rubbing circles on his back.

Mercedes Jones was an observant child. That's why during art, her favorite subject, she had been too distracted to worry with the elbow macaroni and Elmer's glue. She watched Mike instead. The usually energetic child had not said a word in class all day, not even when it was announced that it was his turn to be line leader!

So when nap time came, instead of taking her mat over to where her best friend, Kurt, would be napping; she took her purple nap mat over to the corner where the small ebony haired child had balled himself into the fetal position. She grabbed her blanket and left a small space for her right hand to peek out and began to rub his back, just like her mommy did when she was sick.

Mercedes and Mike did not speak for the rest of the day, but a bond had been formed and cemented that fateful day in kindergarten.

March 21, 2026

Mercedes stood just outside of her daughter's bedroom, peaking through the crack in the door. Her newly decorated big girl room was just one of the very many changes that would be now occurring for the little girl. Fortunately the room had been no problem. The twin size palace shaped canopy bed her father had insisted on building was pastel pink with two towers and the bed nestled in between. On one side of the bed a small set of stairs lead to her very own indoor balcony so she could survey her kingdom (which she had been promptly told did not extend beyond her room). There was even a slide on the other side so that when she was done she wouldn't have to trouble herself with the stairs. She was spoiled.

Truthfully, Mercedes wouldn't have had it any other way. The rest of the room was set up perfectly for the little girl with chalkboard painted walls, bookshelves full of fairytales, Laotian picture books, and African folklore, the perfect tea party set and even her own mini executive desk.

Right now her beautiful bronze colored daughter was tucked into her bed, dark brown ringlets temporarily restrained in matching French braids on either side of her head. Almond shaped brown eyes at half-mast and full lips adorably stretched into an "O" as she failed to suppress a yawn. Her father sat on the edge of her bed, guitar in hand, prepared to sing her to sleep.

"What do you want me to read to you tonight baby girl?"

"The Little Princess, daddy."

"Alright, sweetie." Mike placed a kiss to the little girl's forehead before finding the page where they had last left off and donning an exaggerated English accent.

Mercedes had moved away from the door and made her way to the den and sat amongst a large array of throw pillows she kept in the room. In some ways, she was glad that her little girl was growing up, but she didn't know how to handle it and the stress was beginning to get to her. She had stayed at home for the majority of Vivian's first three years of life, opting to keep her at home instead of letting someone else raise and watch her baby. Now she was elbows deep in primary school applications, trying to decide if she wouldn't just keep the little girl home and home school her until it was time for her to go to college.

"Is she asleep? "Mercedes inquired having already heard Mike's footsteps approaching.

"Like a rock. You know she gets it from you," Mike took the seat next to her and exaggeratedly threw his head into her lap to release a few obnoxiously loud faux snores.

"Shut up, Mike!"a giggling Mercedes exclaimed whilst grabbing the nearest pillow and bopping him against the head with it.

"Hey, hey, hey, that's domestic violence!" shouted Mike as he got up from her lap and playfully scowled at her.

"What is it now?" she asked as she prepared her fingers to tickle him.

"Mercy, don't you dare."

"Don't I dare what?" feigning innocence, she backed him up toward the couch and began her ironically merciless assault of his ribs.

Mike's body stiffened and Mercedes' breathing hitched at the change in position. Mike sat on the couch facing Mercedes who was straddling him with her hands underneath his shirt, her warmth directly above the growing crotch in his jeans. Between the laughter and Mercedes continued tickle assault, neither one of them noticed the compromising position they were in until it was too late. Mercedes doe eyes tentatively looked into Mike's almond shaped ones and saw that they had darkened considerably and that his jaw was clenched in restraint.

It had been so long since they had slipped up that they were not sure how best to handle it, but neither party moved a muscle. This was a consequence of the ambiguous nature of their relationship. At best they had agreed to remain best friends and at the least they agreed that Vivian came first. To most that would observe them, it was obvious that they were a couple. The owned a home together, they lived together, they raised their child together, and they even went on outings together. Neither could verbalize what exactly held them back from making the transition official.

As Mike stared at her now, he couldn't think of a single reason not to make love to the mother of his child. He unwrapped his arms from their protective position around his own body and slowly rubbed his hands down Mercedes' bare arms, feeling the prickle of goose bumps left in their wake.

Mercedes was hyper aware of what was happening. The feelings that she had for Mike were dangerously close to spilling and she wasn't sure if she wanted to stop them.

"Fuck it." Mercedes thought to herself as she slowly removed her hands from their dangerous place under Mike's shirt, gliding over the ridges, and attached them to either side of his face. She gently flicked his lips with her tongue before for bringing their lips together. Both moaned at the contact, while Mike's hands made their way to cup the generous curve of Mercedes hips.

"What are we doing?" Mike whispered against her lips between unhurried kisses.

Mercedes chose to ignore his inquiry and instead ground her hips into him. Mike's lips and tongue had begun their exploration of the thin skin near the nape of her neck, causing her to moan automatically and without restraint. She felt Mike's reaction to her wanton cries pressed against her hot core. For a while she just nuzzled him, allowing for her gentle pants and smooth skin to caress his skin his face.

Quickly and without much fanfare, Mike had stood up and managed to lay Mercedes gently on her back amongst the innocent looking pillows. He pressed his lips firmly to hers once again this time lifting her up so he could remove the tank top she wore. Not once did their lips part. Mercedes attempted to unclasp her bra, but was stopped when Mike's hand gently smacked it away and detached the offending garment with one hand. He placed one hand lightly over her right nipple, barely allowing the palm of his hand to touch the budded skin. He continued his sweet seduction as he gently licked the left nipple, mimicking the actions of the other hand.

Mercedes' body arched from the floor as her left nipple lay exposed to the cooler air as Mike began to suckle her other breast. She felt her most intimate muscles clench deliciously and knew that she would need more attention and soon. She took Mike's hand away from her breast and placed it very firmly over the heat rising from her loins and began grinding into him.

"Damn it, Mercy. Fuck" Mike growled as he pulled down Mercedes soft cotton shorts and underwear exposing her glistening lower lips. He pressed a finger against the hood of her clit and slowly massaged clockwise circles, earning mewls of approval.

"Don't stop!" Mike detached himself from her nipple and used Mercedes thighs to lift her dripping center toward his mouth. He wasted no time hungrily lapping at the juices that covered her most intimate and sensitive areas. He continued to lick and flick her clit until he felt her shuddering and calling for God, Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha.

He had just released her when he felt her hands making quick work of freeing his throbbing hardness, swollen with arousal. She looked into his eyes and licked the entire underside of his length, licking the dripping pre-cum from the tip before taking him to the back of her throat.

Mike was vaguely aware that the noises he was making made him sound like a little girl, but was far too deep in ecstasy to actually care. Abruptly he lifted up her face to meet his, demanding entrance into her mouth with his tongue. They savored their combined flavor and had continued kissing as he flipped them over and eased into her center, filling and stretching her.

There were no more words. Just the sound of moist bodies meeting, moans caught between lover's lips, and breathy pants. Mercedes felt herself fall over the edge with Mike not far behind, content with the heat and the pulsating tightness that surrounded him. He came into her wetness as she continued to convulse around him coming down from her own high.

They both knew that they would have to talk about it eventually. But tonight they lay in the comfort of their home together, basking in the glow.


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own Glee! I have only watched one episode in it's entirety all season (Wonder-ful). Also Samcedes is/was my OTP but I can't deal with the fact there is still no explanation why or how they broke up. Meanwhile, Mikecedes is looking rather cozy so, yeah. Lemme know what you think.**

Mike observed the rise and fall of Mercedes' chest as she lay in the crook of his arm and smiled to himself. He took in her smooth Godiva colored skin and marveled at how it slightly glowed, bearing evidence of their carnal activity and all the very adult things he had done with her. What he loved most was the observed contrast her smooth chocolate skin was next to his sun-kissed and perpetually tanned complexion. He found himself mentally moon-walking for having "put her to bed" before 9:00pm. He lay there fascinated with the way her eyelashes curled against the fullness of her round cheeks. Not a muscle in her face held any tension and there was just the faintest of smiles being made by her full lips. He removed a sweaty tendril of coily hair from where it lay plastered to her face and pulled it, watching it spring back before tucking it behind her ear. A gentle sigh escaped her as she cuddled deeper into his chest. He gently pressed his lips against her temple feeling his heart flutter as he did so. She was beautiful, but she still wasn't technically his.

In his 31 years of existence, Mercedes had been an active part of the past 26 and he still couldn't think of a proper title to give their relationship. Were they friends? Certainly. Were they lovers? It was difficult to argue the negative as their naked limbs were now entangled. It was also particularly hard to argue when they were actively co-parenting a rather precocious toddler in a home that functionally and legally belonged to both of them. Maybe it was because they never talked about it, never defining why or how they were so important to one another.

Ugh! How in the world had they ended up here in the first place?

_Mike and Mercedes had been inseparable ever since that fateful day in kindergarten when Mike was doing his level best to cope with the idea of not having his father at home. Wherever one went, the other was right beside them. Mercedes would share half of her peanut butter and jelly with him and he would make sure she always had a turn on the swing. By the end of their first year of school together, they had already developed their own secret language (called Mirces) and would end up separated during nap time for giggling too loudly in the otherwise quiet classroom. The two never noticed the amused smile Ms. Spears, their teacher, would make at their antics as she told them quiet down; happy that the little chocolate girl could make the little boy smile again._

_Michael Sr. returned home less than a month after he had left, looking somewhat haggard and more determined than ever to never be away from his wife and son again. Although Mike no longer needed Mercedes the way he did when their friendship began, her presence was nearly always requested. Their families were almost forced into a friendship as strong as their children's when they began to schedule regular play dates after school and on weekends to curtail the increased hyperactivity their children exhibited when their companion was not around._

_The days turned into weeks, the weeks into months, the months into years and through it all; the two remained thick as thieves. Puberty, however, presented its own unique challenges. Mike was thirteen when he began to realize that his feelings for Mercedes were not as innocent as they'd been before._

_Mike sat across from Mercedes at his kitchen table while each of them poured over their math textbooks preparing for a test the next day. He had looked up from his paper to see if she was ready to go over answers when he _finally saw_ her. For the past few years, all the girls had started to subtly look more like women and Mercedes had been no exception. There were curves in places that made her look more like the women in his stashed away copy of Victoria's Secret than the preteen girl she had been just the year before. He was uncertain why he was even interested in those newly rounded parts of her but he couldn't keep his eyes away anytime he thought she wasn't looking. Immediately He shifted This was the first day he had been caught.  
_

_"Mike, why are you staring at me? It's weird," she asked although the tone not at all harsh and tinged in good humor._

_"It's because you have boobs." he whispered shyly staring down at his hands. Any bit of dishonesty had long since been removed from their relationship and he knew that she would have read him had he tried._

_"What did you just say?" a look of mixed confusion and amusement on her face._

_"I think you should put on a jacket," he deflected as he got up from his seat and placed his jacket around her shoulders. "And maybe you should button it." He said reaching in and snapping all the buttons in place until there was no evidence of burgeoning breasts._

_Mercedes stared at him blankly, "Are you serious right now?"_

_"As a heart attack, and maybe you should wear my jacket tomorrow too."_

_She rolled her eyes at him and went back to solving word problems, sure that whatever Mike's deal was would be resolved in time. Besides, she found overprotective Mike pretty funny._

_Mike hadn't been the only one to take notice of Mercedes new curves, the guys at school had certainly begun to take notice. Mike wasn't so sure how he felt about that. He knew that she was a frequent subject among his friends on the football team at Lima Traditional Middle School, especially with Sam Evans,who had been persistently trying to get Mike to set him up with Mercedes for the better part of the school year._

_Sam had inquired about Mercedes as recently as that day._

_"Hey Mike!" Sam came running next to him, quickly falling into step beside him._

_"Hey Sam. What's up?"_

_"Nothing much. You know the dance is coming up this Friday..." Mike paused in front of his locker giving Sam his signature side eye.  
_

_"Dude, you are not about to ask me out, are you?" he asked raising an eyebrow.  
_

_"Uh no. But I do want to ask Mercedes to the dance and I know you two always go to dances together. I don't want to cock block you man." Mike could feel his heart beat racing and the automatic tension in his shoulders and took a barely noticeable breath before answering Sam.  
_

_"I don't know dude__. I mean, I'm fine with it," he lied, "but I'm not sure if Papa Jones would approve her going to the dance with a date. He's super old school." There crisis averted. No one would want to mess with Papa John's (who was actually a teddy bear but hid it behind a perpetually stoic expression).  
_

_"But he'd let her go with you, right?" Sam interrupted Mike's mental victory dance.  
_

_"Yeah."_

_"So it's easy. I ask Mercedes out, you pretend to be her date and voila. You can even be best man at our wedding." Sam grinned at Mike as though this was the best idea ever and Mike had to unclench his jaw in order to fake a smile. What eighth grade boy already planned his wedding anyway? "Will you just talk to her, please?"_

_"Yeah man."_

_Mike didn't like the idea of setting Mercedes up with anyone else but he couldn't quite articulate what was wrong with it. He had even planned on asking Tina Cohen-Chang to the dance in the first place, so it wasn't like he expected Mercedes to go to the dance alone. He told himself that he was just trying to protect her because they were close. He knew that was bullshit.  
_

As an adult that lie wasn't going to hold up at all. Sure, he wanted to protect her but the reason was always a bit more complicated than the result of simple proximity. If he had been honest with himself, he would have acknowledged that he had probably been in love with her since kindergarten. There was no other tangible reason that he would risk a cootie outbreak to be around a girl, but he explained it away and was content to just be friends. That was before Sam. As planned Mike went ahead with the Sam's ridiculous plan and lied so that Sam could take Mercedes to the dance. From that day Sam had become a semi-permanent fixture in the Jones' home, first coming over to "study" with Mercedes and Mike and later on his own. When they got to tenth grade, Sam asked Papa Jones if he could have permission to date Mercedes (even though they had been "together" for years at that point) and Papa Jones (the traitor!) had agreed.

Mike couldn't stand it, but he was willing to endure anything to keep his position as Mercedes best friend so instead he learned excellent self-control. He learned to clench his jaw while being subject to double dates with the couple and the googly eyes they gave each other while at the table. He kept his eyes to himself when he saw Mercedes in her prom dress and even managed to pick up his jaw from the floor before his girlfriend saw him. When he caught Sam in bed with Brittney Pierce the summer after high school graduation, however, he took great pleasure in rearranging Sam's face even as the blond begged him not to tell Mercedes.

_Mike had been looking for his coat at the house party hosted by Rachel Berry the summer after graduation. He really hadn't wanted to go, but Tina had insisted that it would be rude for them not to show up and at least say "hi." Tina had ended up having a little too much to drink and had asked if they could stay longer than originally intended. Completely sober and responsible, he had allowed his girlfriend her fun. But now that the party was coming to a close and with the exception of a few stragglers, nearly everyone had gone home. Trying to remember what room his and Tina's coats were in, Mike stumbled into a room with his best friend's boyfriend mid-coitus with Brittana. _

_Sam pulled the naked blonde from the seemingly unfazed couple and made quick work of rearranging his face. He was livid. He could not believe that Sam had the audacity to fool around on Mercedes. She loved him or at least she strongly liked him._

He didn't tell her. Sam explained how he had "conveniently" taken up boxing while Mercedes was out of the country on vacation with her parents and was able to explain away the lumps and bruises on his face. There was no way Mike could watch her face slowly melt into despair as she found out the boy she loved had cheated on her with the school garden tool. Instead he encouraged her accept the offer to Stanford and take a break from Sam. Eventually, she and Sam split ways realizing that the long distance would not be for them.

By the end of the summer he and Tina had split and by the spring of his first year Mike had transferred to UCLA excited about the increased commercial dance opportunities in LA and the opportunity to be closer to Mercedes. Fast forward to where he now lay with his best friend tucked safely in the crook of his arm and their daughter upstairs, he could not think of a place in the world he would rather be.

**I have been working on this chapter forever, the next chapter has is already in the works and is from Mercedes point of view. There may be more sexy times. Lemme know what you think. :-)**


End file.
